The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-09-22

house. How many of our guests have
brought for US coincidence and sympathy
and help! There is legend told of st.
Sebald, that in his Christian rounds he
used to stop for entertainment at the house
of poor cartwright. Coming there one
day, he found the cartwright and his
family freezing for the lack of any fuel.
st. Sebald ordered the man to go and
break the icicles from the side of the
house and bring them in, and the icicles
were brought into the house and thrown
on the hearth, and they began to blaze
Immediately, and the freezing family
gathered around and we're warmed by
them. That was a legend; but how often
have our guests come in to gather up the
cold, freezing sorrows Of our life, kindline
them into illumination and warmth and
good cheer. He who opens his house 10
Christian hospitality turns those who are
( strangers into friends. Years will go by
and there will be great changes in youp
, and there will be great change in them.
Some day you will be sitting in loneliness,
| watching bereavement and you will get
a letter in strange handwriting, and
| you will look at the postoffice
mark and say: "Why, don't
know anybody. living in that
| city; and you will break the envelope, and
there YOU will read the story of thanks for
| yonr hristian generosity long years be-
| fore. and how they have heard afar off of
| your trouble. And the letter will be so
| full of kindly "reminiscences and Christian
| coincidence it will be plaster large enough
| TO cover up all the deep gashes of your
| soul. When we take people into our
| houses as Christian guests, we take them
| into our sympathies forever. In bort,
| Holland, a soldier with sword at his side
| stopped at a house, desiring lodging and
! shelter. The woman Of the house at first
| refused admittance, saying that the men
oil the house were not at home; but when
| he showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army. he
| was mitted and tarried during the night.
| In the night time there was knocking al
| the front door, and two ruffians broke in Ia
| despoil that household. No sooner had
I they come over the doorsill than the armed
| guest, who had primed his piece and
| charged it with slugs, met them and tell
| ing II e woman to stand back, l am happy
to say, dropped the two ussaulting desper-
| auoes dead at his feet. Well, now there
| are no bandits prowling around to destroy
| our houses; but how often it is that we
| find those that have been our guests be
| come our defenders. We give them
| shelter first, and then afterward in the
conflicts of life they fought for our repu-
tation. they fought for our properly, they
| fought for our soul
Another reward that comes from Chris
tian hospitali y is in the assurance that We
! shall have hospitality shown to us an to
| ours. In the upturnings of this life who
| knows in what city or what land We may
| be thrown, and how much we may need an
| open door? There may come no such
| crisis TO us, but our children may be
| thrown into some such strait. Fe who is
| in Christian manner hospitable has a
| free pass through all Christendom 1t may
| be hat YOU will have been dead fifty years
| before any such stress shall come upon
| one of your descendants; but do you not
| suppos- that God can remember fifty yenrs:
| and the knuckle of the grandchlld will be
! heard against the door of some stranger,
and that door will open, and it will be
! talked over in Heaven, and it will be said;
| "That uau's grandfather, fifty years ago,
| gave she Ter TO stranger, and now a
| stran er's door is open for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
| and being entertained, they take piece oil
| lead and cut it in two, and the host takes
one-half OF the piece of lead and the guest
fakes the other half as they part. These
| two pieces of lead are handed down from
| generation to generation, and from family
| to family, and after while, perhaps one
4 of the families in want or in trouble go out
| with this one piece of lead and find the
| other family with the corresponding piece
| of lead, and no sooner is the tally COM
! pleted than the oh hospitality is aroused
and eternal friendship pledged. So the
, memory of Christian hospitality will &c
! down from generation to generation, and
from family to family, and the tally viii
| never be lost, neither in this world nor the
| world 10 come.
Mari; this: The day will come when we
will all be turned out of doors-without
| any eXception-bare foot, bare head, no
| water in the canteen, no bread in the
! hayer5ack, and We will go in that way into
! the future world. And I wonder if eternal
no FATALITIES will open before us, and il
J We will I've received into everlasting habita-
tntiohs: Frauci, Frcscobald was rich
Italian, and he was very merciful and very
hospitaile. One day an Englishman by
the name of Thomas Cromwell appeared at
his door asking for shelter and aims, which
were cheerfully rendered. Frescobald
afterward lost all his property, became
very poor. and wandered up into England,
and one day ne saw procession passing,
and 10. it was the Lord thancpllor of En-
gland, and 10! the Lord Chancellor of En-
gland was Thomas Cromwell, the very man
whom he had once befriended down in
Italy. The Lord Chancellor at the first
glance of Frescobald recognized him and
diSmouDted from his carriage, threw his
arms around him end embraced him, paid
his debts, invited him to his house and
said: Here are ten pieces of money to
pay for the bread you gave me, and here
are ten pieces of money 10 provide for the
horse yOu loaned me, and here are fonr
bags, in each of which ARE 800 ducats.
Take them and he we'll" So it will
lie at last with us. If we entertain Christ
in the person of His disciples in this
world, when we pass mp into the next
country we will meet Chr st in regal
procession, and He will pour all the
wealth of Heaven into our lap and open
before us everlasting hospitalities. And
o how tame are the richest entertainments
we can give on earth compared with the
regal munihcence which Christ will display
before our souls in Heaven! l was read
ing the account which Thomas Fuller
gives of the entertainment provided by
George Neville. Among other things for
that banquet they had SO quarters of
wheat, l04 tuns Of wine, so oxen, 1900
capons, 200 cranes, 200 kids, 1000 pigeons,
1900 rabbits, 2O4 bitterns, 200 pheasants,
500 patridges, 400 plover, 100 quail, 100
curlews, 800 hot pasties, 1000 cold yeni-
son pasties, 1000 custards-the Earl Of
Warwick acting as steward, and servitors
1000. o, what grand feast was
that! but then compare it with the provis-
ion which God has made for us on high;
that great banquet hour; the l44,0 900 as
guests; all the harps and trumpets of
Heaven as the orchestra; the vintage of the
celestial hills poured into the tankards; all
the fruit of the orchards of God piled on
the golden platters; the angels of the Lord
for cup bearers, and the once folded starry
banner of the blue sky flung out over the